Apprenticeship Degrees Billy Farrell

Billy left school at 16 with only his Standard Grades, joining a youth training programme with Arcadia Group, and thought he would never go to university. Fast forward twenty-four years, and he is busy working on his dissertation in his final years of our BA (Hons) Business Management degree.

Billy has worked in Retail throughout his career, most of it at M&Co, supported by a fantastic line manager and organisational staff development programme. Moving to Barnardo’s as an Area Manager, he was looking to develop further and did some personal research and stumbled across graduate apprenticeships.

Why Strathclyde? Simply, he used to walk past it all the time and wondered what it would be like to be a student there, and he always heard good things about the university. He took his research back to his fully supportive manager and led him to apply, pass the assessment centre, and begin his Strathclyde journey.

Speak about his time on the course, Billy said: 

“It has not been an easy journey, but I am pleased that I have made it to my final year. A few personal circumstances caused me to consider leaving a couple of times, but I will be forever grateful to my work-based learning advisor, Nicola, who has continued to support, help and believe in me during my four years. My dissertation is focused on sustainability in the charity sector, and I can see this really helping the company continue to grow in the coming years. I never thought I would go to university, and I am now forty and will be graduating this year which I am absolutely delighted about.”

The graduate apprenticeships at Strathclyde have a diverse group whether this is age, qualifications or work experience and this makes the course open to everyone.

Billy wrote an interesting blog, Pricing to Make a Profit, for the Charity Retail Constortium.

If you are interested in hearing more about our Graduate Apprenticeships, please contact Shona MacPherson.